LOS ANGELES—
During post-production,
Deluxe
Entertainment
puts a metatag
on every scene when
a character drinks a
beverage, drives a car
or puts on a pair of
shoes. If specific product brands appear in
a scene, they also get a metatag.

Months or years later, when the show
appears on a screen—be it living-room
flat-panel, mobile handset or anything in
between—the distributor of that video asset
will be able to sell a commercial or create
a “time-in,” including a second-screen
promotion triggered by metadata, to an
appropriate advertiser.

That’s just one of the multiscreen opportunities
that Chris Rittler of Deluxe
Digital Distribution envisions for the
evolving integrated content and distribution
channels that his nearly century-old
company serves.

“We’re making certain that our cloud
catalog can be distributed onto any system,”
said Rittler, who is senior vice president
of sales, business development and
marketing at the Deluxe unit. “This is
where the value lies. Distributors and advertisers
want [this metadata] in content
catalogs,” focusing on the increased importance
of future-proofing multiplatform
material.

“Many of our customers, since they
are going beyond the set-top box, want
enhanced metadata,” he said, describing
several ways in which Deluxe has handled
that capability. “We’ve automated our
metadata,” because customers have different
needs. For example, TV networks or
online video services may want to highlight
individual actors for a theme series,
and the metadata helps single out those
performers. Rittler also explains that review
and ratings metatags can help programmers
select programs on a variety
of scales, including (as he notes with a
chuckle) the “Rotten Tomatoes” critiques.

“We’ve invested in enabling all kinds
of distributors to get their content to
all kinds of platforms in both linear and
video-on-demand formats,” Rittler said.
He emphasizes the interweaving of the
emerging platforms: “The combination of
getting content to screens for both VOD
and linear is hugely important.”

Deluxe on Demand clients include ABC,
CBS, NBCUniversal, Fox, Viacom and Discovery
plus premium cable channels such
as HBO, Showtime, Starz and Epix. The
company also works with its legacy studio
clients such as Sony, Warner Bros., Universal
and 20th Century Fox along with many
other studios.

Rittler acknowledges that the diversification
of today’s market makes the metatagging
task so complex, especially with the
goal of assuring that content reaches various
screens as networks and carriers expect.
While cable distribution is “very standardized,”
he said—either 15 Mbps for HD
or 3.5 Mbps for SD,
the multiscreen
universe requires
50 different formats,
or more.

Deluxe’s multiscreen solution architecture.

And even the
15 Mbps format
is not a simple
matter, Rittler said. “You have to
look at resolution,
screen size, audio
and a number of
other variables” to
assure that viewers
see the program
the way the
producers and distributors
intended
to.

Adding to the
current complexity
is that,
as Rittler sees it,
“distributors’ engineering
teams may
think their content
looks better on different devices. It comes
down to bitrates,” he adds, noting that
“you’ll see it differently” on an iPad Air or
living room flat panel displays.

STANDARDS NEEDED
Further complicating the encoding
task is the lack of digital rights management
standards, he said.

Deluxe has developed a workflow process
as it prepares content for multiplatform
distribution. Its video catalog now
includes 40,000 titles, and the company
is adding “thousands more every month.”

The first step is encoding content, for
example compressing 200 MB of content
into a 9 MB package. Then it is “chunked
up” into a packager, such as Smoothstream.
Finally, the show is encrypted.

The lack of DRM standards represents
merely one of the challenges as video
content is prepared for multiplatform distribution,
Rittler said. One of the reasons
that there are no standards is that “technology
is changing so fast between devices,
DRM and encoding capabilities.” For
example, he points out that there are only
a handful of distribution platforms in the
cable world (such as Arris and Seachange),
but there are many more platforms for
over-the-top channels.

“No one can keep up,” he said. “We say [to
clients] that with what we’ve done, we will
keep up with it for you. We call it a ‘content
factory in the cloud,’ and we use it to keep
up with the changes in specifications.... As content is flowing, it all goes though
our system. As specs change,
we can retool the system on the fly.”

Deluxe also provides hosting and content
delivery network services for
its customers, providing what Rittler calls
“integrated service” to feed the final-leg
distribution systems. Deluxe works with
other CDNs such as Akamai and Limelight
to assure that content reaches clients in
the format needed.

For media companies, a core workflow
feature is the “media library” function
that applies metadata APIs (application
programming interface) to push content
through the appropriate retail channels.
For example, some clients want UltraViolet
information integrated into the identification.

Deluxe is adding multiscreen capabilities
as well, according
to Rittler.
Tweets are
often part of
the mix of information
about a
show, so Deluxe
is feeding data
from social media
into its material
and then
assures that
such tweets
play on any
viewer device.

The company is also preparing to develop
data-gathering options from mood
sensors and other devices that are part of
the evolving “Internet of Things” process.

“When you look at the developments
in [content] search based on metadata it
makes sense,” Rittler said. This rich metadata
is enabling program selection and
recommendation based on moods affected
by what you watch, he suggests.
He believes that this is an area where “we
can provide viewers with an enhanced
content service.”

“We want to connect viewers to content,” Rittler said. “Now we can make sure
that viewers can find the content that interests
them. It’s a big challenge.”